


Welcome to a Universe

by Baozhale



Category: Tortall - Tamora Pierce, Tricksters - Tamora Pierce, Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-14
Updated: 2014-01-13
Packaged: 2018-01-08 16:22:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1134854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Baozhale/pseuds/Baozhale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kit, Nita, Dairine, and Ponch wind up world-walking together, accidentally. They manage to walk into the ending scenes of Trickster's Queen. Chaos ensues, and will continue to ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Welcome to a Universe

**Author's Note:**

> Myles, Eleni, and Rikash don't actually talk (yet), but they were present in the scene I had the young wizards interrupt... We will see them for real later.

Kit had been planning to walk Ponch, yes, and Nita coming with him had been planned. He'd taken the leash he used for walking between worlds as a matter of convenience- he couldn't _find_ the other leash. He had not been planning to use it to wander off into another universe. He certainly hadn't planned to accidentally drag Nita and Dairine along with him as he did so, but since when did things ever go as planned? The four of them- Kit, Nita, Dairine, and Ponch- now stood in the middle of utter chaos.

A red-headed, violet-eyed woman of middle age had stood and drawn her sword within seconds of their arrival... somewhere. A younger woman, clearly pregnant, had pulled daggers seemingly from nowhere even faster, as had a man who might be her father. One man had turned into a _crow_ on their arrival; another called black and silver fire to his hands. The woman with the daggers was the first to speak. “Explain yourselves.” It wasn't English, but the wizards understood her words through the Speech.

“Uh...” Kit started.

“Lost?” Nita suggested in the Speech. “Us, I mean.” In English, she whispered to Kit and Dairine, “Where _are_ we, how did we get here, and can we get out?”

“We're from another universe. Wizardly accident,” Dairine said.

The man with the black and silver fire in his hands started at the words “wizardly accident.” He didn't drop his fire, but his eyebrows rose. “What sort of accident? And how do you know you're in a different universe? What universe are you from?”

Both of the dagger-holders held their hands up. “Numair...” the man said, “we don't know that these people are _safe_ to be asking those questions.”

“Can't you see lies on people?” the red-head asked.

“The Gift shields you, lass, and I've no intention of risking that it shields them- wizardly accident means a Gift of some sort.”

Dairine and the older red-hed spoke at the same time.

“Wait, your wizards can lie?” Dairine said. “And not need to worry that the world will change to match it if they drop into the Speech?”

“Do they _look_ shielded? Aly, you can see Gifts, are they Gifted? Are they shielded?”

The woman with the daggers- she must be Aly, then- said, “They've got something I've never seen before. It's not the Gift, and it's not wild magic, but it's something in that area. Some sort of power I've not seen before.”

“But do they look shielded? Would you be able to tell if they lied?”

“I don't _know_ , mother! I won't know unless they tell a lie that I know about and I see it or don't!”

“That'd be kind of a bad idea, considering the consequences of lies for wizards of our sort,” Kit pointed out. The assembled... whoever they were gave no sign of caring about what he'd just said.

“Is this the _Copper Isles?_ ” Dairine said, startling Kit. “But... that's _fiction._ ”

Everyone stared at Dairine. “What's fiction?” the toddler asked.

The young man whose lap she sat on said, “Fiction is a story. It's something that's not real.”

“But I'm real! I'm Sarralyn and I'm real!”

Nita elbowed Kit. “I think your dog brought us to the universe where one of Dairine's books isn't fiction.”

“Your books, Nita. I borrowed them from you.”

“Speak Common!” The man with the daggers demanded.

“Is this better?” Kit asked, switching back to the Speech. “We mean no harm. We're just not entirely sure where we are, other than outside our home universe.”

“It has... undertones, but I understand them now,” Numair said.

“Either they're shielded or they're telling the truth,” Aly said.

And then Kyprioth appeared.

“Who's that?” Kit asked. “He's glowing. Is he supposed to be glowing?”

“That's godhood,” Aly said. “You're really not from around here, are you?”

“That's what we've been saying,” Dairine said.

“So, Alianne, is this interesting enough for you?” the god asked.

“YOU did this?” Aly said.

“No, but I noticed. They're not going to hurt you.”

“Does whatever they have shield them from the Sight?” Aly asked.

“If I told you, it'd ruin the interesting! But they won't hurt you.” With that, the glowing figure vanished.

“What. Was. That.” Kit said.

“I'd like to know that too,” said a young man who looked to be about the same age as the dagger-holding woman.

“Kyprioth,” both dagger holders said at the same time. “Trickster god.” Aly put her daggers away, and the man looked at her. “He's a trickster, not someone who's out to get his spymaster killed, Da. If he says they're safe, they're safe.”

“That's not exactly what he said, though, is it? He said they won't hurt _us_.” He didn't sheathe his daggers.

“Not out to get his spymaster killed, Da. So, who are you all? I'm Alianne, though I go by Aly. That's Alan, my twin.” She pointed at the man her own age.

“I'm Kit. On the end of the leash is my dog, Ponch, who finds universes. The girls are Nita and Dairine. They're sisters. We're wizards. Except Ponch- we're not sure exactly how to classify what he does.”

“And he's a _dog_ ,” the violet-eyed woman pointed out. “Alanna. My name is Alanna.”

“I didn't know dogs could do magic...” the man with the black and silver fire in his hands said.

“He doesn't look like a typical dog to me- the copper is streaked with something I don't recognize. Aly, take a closer look at the dog, will you?” one woman said. “Daine, by the way. And this is my husband, Numair, who will forget everything when you hand him an interesting problem.”

“And you won't, auntie?” Aly pointed out. “Dog's got something unusual, but I don't recognize what it is. It's like godhood, but not.”

Kit stared, gaping, at Aly. “Godhood? I'm pretty sure he's a dog. Wizards pets get weird sometimes.”

Dairine elbowed him. “And Peach is your example? Peach turned out to be one of the Powers that Be, remember?”

“What's a powers that be's?” Sarralyn asked.

“Possibly their universe's equivalent of a god?” the man whose lap she sat on suggested. “Thom,” he added.

“Not exactly, though they get mistaken for it often enough,” Dairine said.

 

They stayed up for hours, trying to understand even the most basic things about each other's universes. After much convincing, Kit lied, just to let Aly test. He refused to use the Speech, so they didn't _know_ his lie was as simple as “the sky is green,” but Aly could see the lie. (Did only certain Gifts shield you from their Sight? Was it that wizards weren't supposed to lie, so the universe wouldn't protect them, but the local forms of magic had no such restriction and were protected? Kit was fairly sure he wasn't the only one wondering.)

 

Eventually, Aly and Nawat had to go, or fall asleep on the table. They made Kit, Nita, Dairine, and Ponch promise to visit so they could figure out this wider universe. Numair wanted to explore how alternate universes worked and what effect a crossover would have on whatever entanglement had allowed them to become fiction in the newcomers home. Aly wanted to make sure _other_ wizards of this new type weren't going to cause problems for Queen Dovesary. George and Alanna had the same worry for King Jonathan. Daine wanted to get to know Ponch better.

 

At home, Kit, Nita, and Dairine found that they were on assignment... in the universe they had just wandered into. “ _That's_ going to be interesting,” Nita said. “I think we're going to need backup. And wizards local to their universe.”


End file.
